Kalu gives families K200 000 as widow threatens to dig husband if Gabon report is not released

One of the widows of the footballers and administrators who died in a plane crash 19 years ago has threatened to exhume her husband if the report of the crash is not released.

Peggy Mwape said

‘previous governments have failed us we are asking the new governement to release the report…failure to that…I , myself I got all the power to exhume my husband boyd and to burry him at my place where I do stay in the farm . It is pointlesss to be here every year and getting nothing.’

And FAZ president Kalusha Bwalya has given families of the footballers who crashed in Gabon K200, 000 each during the 19th anniversary.

Kalusha Bwalya went to the memorial site before the families arrived and left the money with some officials to distribute before he drove off to avoid the families.

Zambia today marked the 19th anniversary of the tragedy that befell the national team in 1993.

During the late evening of Tuesday 27 April 1993 the Zambian Air Force Buffalo DHC-5D carrying most of the Zambian national football team to a FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Senegal in Dakar, caught fire and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean about 500 metres offshore near Libreville, Gabon.

The plane had made a refuelling stop in Libreville en route to Dakar.

All 30 passengers died, among them most of the finest generation of footballers Zambia had ever ­produced.

Eventually 24 bodies were recovered, but only 13 could be identified.

A Gabonese official investigation into the accident concluded that the pilot had shut down the wrong engine after a fire.

The investigation found that pilot fatigue and an instrument error had contributed to the accident.

However the Zambian government is yet to release a full report of the air crash to the public or family members.

The Copper Bullets Chipolopolo honoured the fallen heroes when they won AFCON trophy earlier in the year in Gabon.